Matthew 17:1-9
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
Because God is merciful, He does not permit us to see everything. We’re already fearful and phobic enough about so many things. And so God limits our vision. We cannot look into the future. We don’t see the warfare going on around us between angels and demons. We can’t see viruses and bacteria. Nor can we see the air, or electrical waves, or even things hidden by walls. We couldn’t live day to day if everything were visible to us. It would overwhelm us and paralyze us.
We confess in the Creed that God is the “maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.” And that means that He is Lord over all that is, both seen and unseen. And one of the things that in mercy He keeps us sinners from seeing is His own glory. For even a glimpse of God Almighty would be more than we could handle. The people of Israel even became afraid of the face of Moses after he spoke with God on Mount Sinai, to the point where Moses had to wear a veil to keep them from seeing his face shining with the reflected glory of God.
And as much as we think that we would like to see beneath the veil, God knows that we are not really equipped to see Him as He is. Consider the very genuine reaction of terror from Peter, James, and John when our Lord Jesus Christ unveiled Himself on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Unlike Moses, whose face only reflected God’s glory, our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and shines with the very glory of God.
The three disciples also saw something normally hidden to us: those who have departed this life in the faith. Normally, they are part of the “invisible” realm. Scripture warns us against even trying to communicate with the dead. But Jesus allows Peter and James and John to see Moses and Elijah in a heavenly vision. Both of them were there talking to Jesus. And the disciples are given to behold the glory of the Son of God that Moses and Elijah already knew. Jesus “was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light.”
Transfiguration is the Latin version of the Greek word “metamorphosis.” Both words mean the same thing, “to change form.” The ordinary Jesus that they knew so well revealed His hidden nature as the fully divine Son of God. And they perceived this now-revealed form as pure radiant energy, as a blast of light like the sun. St. Peter called this incident to mind in our epistle reading, saying that he and James and John were “eyewitnesses of His majesty.”
One of the earliest preserved paintings of Jesus that we know of is an icon of Him from the sixth century. I’ll show it to you in Bible class today. In it you can clearly see how the two halves of our Lord’s face are intentionally different, reflecting His two natures: divine and human. And this is what the disciples saw that fearful but joyful day of Transfiguration. Jesus unveiled His face to show them the glory of God. It was still the truly human face of Jesus. But in and through His true humanity, His divine glory shone forth.
It is important for us to recognize and cling to the fullness of who our Lord Jesus is. For the Transfiguration means that not only was Jesus one of us, a real man who could stand in for us; it also means that Jesus’ death on our behalf was a God-sized death. It wasn’t simply the death of a good man and a great teacher, it was the death of God Himself, which is a big enough death to include you and me and every last person on earth without exception. It contained the power to atone fully for your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world.
Jesus says not to tell anyone about His transfiguration yet, not until after His resurrection. Only then would they fully understand it and be able to talk about it rightly. For now, this vision was given to them to strengthen them for the faith-shaking events that would soon be coming during Holy Week. They needed to remember that the glory of God is hidden beneath His true humanity, even beneath suffering and the cross. For only in this way would they be able to truly see God without fear and to share in His glory forever.
We, too, need this vision of Jesus. We need to know how the story is going to end to help us endure through the hard times. In His Transfiguration Jesus gives us a glimpse of the end of the story–and it’s not just His story, it’s the story of all those who are baptized into Christ. 1 John 3 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” In other words, when you look at Jesus here, you are seeing your own future in Him. And St. Paul says in Romans 8 that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” The glory of God is hidden for you, too, even under suffering and the cross.
But don’t only look at Jesus here. Even more importantly, listen to Jesus. The Father’s normal silence was broken here, and His voice came from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” You may not yet see His glory in the same way that the disciples did, but He does come to you in His glorious Word: the Word of His mercy, the Word of life and salvation, of forgiveness and eternal joy. He comes to you robed in light, for He is the Light of the World, which you see with the eyes of faith.
“When the disciples heard this,” says Matthew, “they fell on their faces and were terrified.” Like the people who saw the glory of God on the face of Moses, their natural reaction was one of fear. But this is not all bad, for it is written, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Jesus even said that we should not fear the people and the things that can only kill the body, but rather fear God who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What is it that you fear more than God? What is it that runs your decision-making and vetoes His Word? Repent of it. For in the midst of all our misdirected fear, Jesus comes to us to comfort us. “Rise and have no fear,” He says to the disciples. And His words bring about what they say. Whatever it is that you fear–violence, viruses, rejection by your peers, government tyranny, anti-government extremists, economic uncertainty, social instability–Jesus says to you, “Rise and have no fear. I am with you; I am on your side. And if that is so, who can be against you? What do you need to be afraid of?”
Note how it says that Jesus came to the disciples and touched them. It’s that human touch of the divine Jesus that brings comfort. It’s the human touch of Jesus that you receive in preaching and the Sacraments. He makes tangible contact with you in a way that doesn’t terrify you but consoles you and raises you up. You kneel here with your heads bowed, and He comes to you with His true body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. And He lifts up your heads and your hearts and says, “Peace be with you.”
“And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” When it comes right down to it, that’s all we need to see as well–Jesus only. In seeing Him, we see the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. In Him we see our salvation in the flesh. In Him we see the glory of God that doesn’t terrify us but comforts us and draws us to Himself in mercy. Don’t look to your own works and your own merits to get you into God’s good graces. Don’t look to other spiritualities or other authorities to make things right. Along with the disciples, see Jesus only–as He said, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6)
Moses and Elijah now return behind the veil. The radiant face of Jesus becomes the familiar face of their Teacher once more. And the voice of the Father will be found again only in the Scriptures. The veil is put back in place–but Peter and James and John know what they saw. It’s no cleverly devised myth. It’s the prophetic Word of Scripture confirmed and fulfilled. And Peter reminds you that you will do well to pay attention to this Word as to a lamp shining in a dark place.
Where do you come into contact with this transfigured Jesus? In His Word. For the Psalmist says that the Holy Word is a “lamp to my feet” and a “light to my path.” Peter says, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation." Rather, the Word of God was given to the writers of the Scriptures as they were “carried along by the Holy Spirit.” In the written Word of God we experience the Word made flesh, Jesus. That’s where the light is for you. Pay attention to it. Or as the voice of the Father said, “Listen to Him.”
Listen to Him as if your life depends on it–because it does. Listen to Him, for He has the words of eternal life. Where else would you go? Come and step behind the veil today, and by the power of His words receive the radiant body and blood of your Lord, that you also may be transfigured with Him. For it is written in 2 Corinthians 3, “We all, with unveiled face”–you can’t receive the Sacrament without taking off the mask, can you?–“beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”
So remember, in His mercy God will not permit you to see everything. But He will allow you to see everything that you need for eternal life–even Jesus Christ our Lord.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
(With thanks to the Rev. Fr. Larry Beane)